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2008 U19 GF Winners Celebrate 10 Years

On Saturday night (21 July), the players and parents celebrated the U19 South 1 Premiership 10th anniversary at the clubrooms. It was a good turn-up with over 40 people attending. However. Unfortunately, there were a number of the players overseas including vice captain Pete Richter who was in Europe and Tim Lees in Columbia.

The final score in the grand final was:

Beaumaris 15.8.98 defeated Caulfield Grammarians 13.16.94.

The premiership was a remarkable one for a number of reasons. The premiership qualified the U19s to play in the Premier Division in the following year. The club has since remained at that elite level for 10 years. The premiership also resulted in the club fielding a second U19 team the following year. That inaugural second team was coached by club great John Taylor. Since then we have fielded a second U19 team for 10 years straight.

The 2008 season was very challenging for the whole club. Oak Street had been completely resurfaced. The club could not train or play any home games during the year. It meant home games had to be played at Black Rock, Brighton, Mentone Grammar Playing Fields and Weatherall Road.

It was Jason Mifsud's first year as senior coach. Josh Bourke, recruited from Cheltenham Panthers, was appointed as the U19 coach at the ripe old age of 22. Adam Coote was his assistant.

The U19 squad consisted of former Beaumaris junior players, 10 players from Cheltenham Panthers and 5 players from Dingley. There were 47 players in the squad with 4 players playing the entire season in the seniors (Scott Gower, Adam McNeil, Alex Bennett and Will Sanchez) and co-captain Matt McNally playing seniors all season bar 1 game in the U19s. In all, 42 players in the squad played at least 1 game. With Matt McNally playing seniors, John Mapleston captained the team throughout the year.

Of the 47 players in the squad, 21 went on to play senior football and to date and 10 have played more than 100 games. The current club captain and triple senior B&F winner, Matt Petering and other senior B&F winners, Rob Cathcart and Scott Gower, were all members of the squad with the former 2 playing in the grand final. Rob Cathcart won the best on ground award in the grand final.

The U19s' final series was unforgettable. Beaumaris need to win the last home and away game against Ormond to qualify for the finals. It did so by 74 points. All the finals were at Brindisi Street. The final 4 consisted of Old Melburnians (finished on top), Caulfield Grammarians, Ormond and Beaumaris. Beaumaris had not beaten the top 2 teams and honours were even with Ormond.

The 1st semi-final against Ormond saw the boys facing a completely different team they had faced the week before. The Ormond team included an U17 player called Max Gawn. At three quarter time, Beaumaris was struggling and the team was 25 points behind. However, the boys rallied kicking 7 goals to 1 in the last quarter to win by 10 wins. Caulfield Grammarians had upset Old Melburnians in the second semi so we faced Old Melburnians in the preliminary final. Given that we hadn't beaten them all year, we were rank underdogs. It was repeat of the previous week with the boys being 22 points down at three quarter time. Again they found the strength to overcome the talented opposition and win the game by 16 points.

On to the grand final against Caulfield Grammarians who boasted an ex-Beaumaris junior Callum Sinclair.  Callum played in an U/16 Beaumaris Premiership team that included many of the players that he was lining up against in the U/19 Grand Final three years later.

This game was a closer one than the other finals with Beaumaris staying in sight of Caulfield. This was partly due the relentless tackling by the boys and also the inaccurate kicking by Caulfield. Scores at three quarter time were Caulfield 10.14.74 to Beaumaris 10.5.65. Callum Sinclair was having a day out kicking 7 goals. Rob Cathcart and Marcus Glenister kicked 4 each for Beaumaris. 

The last quarter was an arm wrestle. Matt Petering kicked a goal late in the quarter to put Beaumaris 3 points up. Caulfield responded with a goal and it looked game over. Enter Alex Davies, who in his own admission, had had a quite day. He marked a dinky pass from Chris Germano. Alex went back and calmly slotted the goal from 45 metres out.  A quick snap from Marcus Glenister for a behind put us 4 points up. Caulfield kicked long to their half forward flank. Tim Lees marked to steady the situation. To everyone's amazement (but not Tim's),  he decided to execute a switch kick across goal - straight to the opposition! The Caulfield player who marked played on and scrubbed a kick into space. There was a mass of players who swarmed on the ball. There was a ball up and the siren went. The huge number of Beaumaris supporters ran on to the ground to join the pile of exuberant players, coaches and assistants. It was a fantastic finish to the season.

As Josh Bourke said on the night, we might see that they played against 2 potential AFL All Australians namely Max Gawn and Callum Sinclair.

The club owes a debt of gratitude to Josh for not only the premiership but also the legacy of having 2 U19 teams and a team playing in Premier for the last 10 years. We must also pay tribute to the player's 'never say die' attitude throughout the final series. This was exemplified again in the 2010 senior premiership and games ever since.

It was frenetic Last Quarter - Click Here for video link 1

OR .... - Click Here for video link 2